Mumbai: A Sessions Court today (March 9, 2004) extended till March 22 its stay on a magistrate's order issuing summons to Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai and her family members to appear in a cheating case filed by a real estate agent for non-payment of brokerage towards purchase of a property.

The stay was extended by Sessions Judge Hemant Deshpande who decided to hear on March 22 the plea of Aishwarya Rai and her family members to dismiss the cheating case.

Magistrate S Y Shishode had issued summons on January 10 asking Aishwarya Rai, her brother and parents to appear on February 27 before him in a cheating case filed by estate agent Krishnakumar Shetty.

Shetty filed a private complaint in Bandra court alleging that during 1998 he had rendered services to help Aishwarya's family in buying a 3,000 sq ft flat in suburban Bandra. However, they did not pay him brokerage as agreed by them.

Aishwarya Rai's lawyer Girish Kulkarni contended that the offence was not made out against the actress and her family and that there was no agreement between them and the real estate agent.

According to Shetty, the flat in "La Maid" building in suburban Bandra was jointly purchased by Aishwarya, her father Krishnaraj, mother Brindaraj and brother Aditya for Rs 1.75 crore and they had agreed to pay him brokerage of two per cent of the value of the flat, which worked out to Rs 3.75 lakh.

Shetty said in the complaint that he had served a legal notice on them asking them to pay the brokerage charges. But they did not respond and he filed a complaint in the court charging the actress and her family with cheating and criminal breach of trust in respect of their agreement.